Brain Trust was founded in 2000 and is located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Their customer-centric strategic thinking keeps the big picture front and centre, while delivering solutions that contribute to the bottom-line growth of private and public organizations in the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors.

Founder, Richard Innes has a marketing background having worked for some of the country's largest advertising agencies. He also played crucial roles in Canada's largest tourism destination marketing organization, Destination Toronto (DT, formerly Tourism Toronto). For nine years he served as VP, Account Director at DT's advertising agency, and then as DT's Vice President of Marketing.

As an experienced tourism industry strategist, Richard blends the creativity of his marketing background with the discipline of visitor-centric tourism destination development, bringing valuable insight and wisdom to his clients. He excels at working in multi-stakeholder environments and relishes opportunities to work with tourism owner-operators. As an accomplished facilitator, he can rally tourism stakeholders in collaborative dialogue that generates relevant, realistic, and responsible business solutions contributing to visitor economy growth.

Richard's passion for tourism destination management and development through the lens of the customer is widely valued. He is a Certified Trainer for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and has facilitated tourism strategy development in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. His work has taken him to every Canadian province and territory, including work with Indigenous First Nations.

In 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canada's tourism industry.

Brain Trust regularly partners with respected professionals such as Dr. Nancy Arsenault, and Lesley Anderson from The Tourism Café Canada, and the team at LORD Cultural Resources. Brain Trust retains the services of other specialists who, as needed, deliver a variety of other services.